


Trade All My Tomorrows

by cardinalstar



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Bad Future, Bart Allen Likes Hugs, Bittersweet Ending, Gen, Minor Character Death, Post-Apocalyptic, Superhero Kitchen Sink, Team as Family, Time machine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 07:19:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5447984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cardinalstar/pseuds/cardinalstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bart Allen's life in the past wasn't easy, but there were some compensations.  </p><p>Or: Where Young Justice wasn't the first team of heroes Bart belonged to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trade All My Tomorrows

Before they’d been separated, Bart’s dad had taught him many lessons. 

One of the first he could remember had been the history of his name.  “Bart, you were named after your grandpa,” his dad told him one afternoon while they had been running – they ran a lot, and it was a good thing his dad was so fast, because he didn’t want to know what would happen to them if they were caught.  “His name was Bartholomew like you, but everyone called him Barry.  He was a hero, and he had super-speed.” 

His dad skidded to a stop behind an old building and set him down.  “Wait – so my grandpa was a speedster too?  Was he as fast as you?”

Bart’s dad smiled.  “He was the fastest – even faster than me.  But who knows – maybe one day you’ll be faster than any of us, Bart.” 

His dad also taught him how to use his speed – how to build his endurance, how to plan his way through tight turns and complicated maneuvers, how to vibrate through solid objects, how to stop on a hair and turn on a dime.  Just as importantly, he’d made sure that Bart understood that speed had its drawbacks.  His super-metabolism might help him heal and protect him from most diseases, but he burned through fuel faster as a consequence – and food was hard to come by these days. 

He’d taught Bart how to steal, although it seemed to pain him to do so.  “Speed gives you an advantage, but don’t overdo it,” he’d warned, “especially if you’re really hungry.  The last thing you need is to push yourself too hard during the middle of a theft – then you’re vulnerable, and they can catch you.  It’s best to sneak in, get what you need, and then run.”

He’d also made sure that Bart carried, within him, some sense of a moral code.  Bart resented these conversations a little bit – the distinction between good and evil was hard to think about sometimes, when he was fighting for survival and taking others’ food in order to feed himself.  But it was so important to his dad, and these moral distinctions also helped connect him to his grandfather, who’d been brave and had put other people before himself.  Bart didn’t understand that impulse, that drive to sacrifice for the benefit of others.  But his dad cared, so he’d always at least do his best to listen. 

There was one lesson that Bart truly hated, but his dad insisted that it was the most important.  “Bart,” he’d said to him one day, kneeling down to look the nine-year-old boy in the eyes.  “You are more important to me than anything else and I would give anything to keep you safe.  If anything ever happens to me, I want you to run.  Go as far away as you can, and don’t ever let them catch you.” 

 “I’d never leave you behind,” he’d snapped, glaring into his dad’s hazel eyes.  “It doesn’t matter anyway – nothing is fast enough to catch us.” 

In the end, though, he’d failed both his father and himself.  When the Reach caught up to them – because as fast as speedsters were, the Reach was everywhere at once – he’d ignored the cold chill in his gut, the voice in his head telling him to stand and fight, and he’d fled. 

By the time he ran back – because he was supposed to be a hero, wasn’t he, and heroes didn’t leave the people they loved to the enemy – his dad was gone. 

When the Reach came back for him, he was too spent to run again. 

~

His dad had taught him plenty about speed, but Bart had to teach himself about stealth. 

Working in the Reach’s labor camps was, to put it mildly, a drag.  It was dull, tedious work – pulling apart old tech and cleaning the salvage, turning over the finds to the supervisors.  The worst part was definitely the inhibitor collar.  He was defenseless without his speed, and there was always the possibility that he could end up Moded – controlled directly by his captors, and that was pretty much the worst thing that could happen to anyone, except for maybe death. 

But it wasn’t all bad.  He didn’t need as much to eat, with the collar suppressing his metabolism; there still wasn’t nearly enough food to go around, but at least the skimpy rations wouldn’t be lethal.  As for the jobs he was set, Bart proved a quick hand at them; apparently he had potential for working with the tech, and he was fast even without his powers.  It wasn’t long before he found himself getting bumped up to the patch-up crew, working to assemble devices from scrap and sometimes even performing minor, routine repairs on the Reach ships themselves. 

Of course, his promotion also brought him into contact with a figure he’d learn to dread – the Blue Beetle, the Reach’s vanguard and pretty much the bringer of the apocalypse. 

While the Blue Beetle generally ignored him and the other workers, sometimes he’d get a little bit too hands-on for comfort.  Bart had learned this the hard way.  He’d been working with another metahuman, an older girl with dark skin and friendly green eyes, and for once he’d actually been having a decent conversation too.  They were re-assembling a dismantled control panel, a task that hardly required Bart’s attention at that point, when the sound of heavy footsteps had made them pause. 

 “Well?” growled a cold, distorted voice from above Bart’s head. 

He looked up, very slowly. 

The Beetle was standing over him, but his yellow-eyed glare was directed at his work partner, who had frozen in place with a screw halfway to her pocket. 

 “Trying to steal, meat?” the Beetle clicked, and _hell no,_ there was the sonic cannon, and it was charging-

Bart stepped in front of the girl.  “Whoa, whoa there Blue.  You don’t mind if I call you that, right?”

Wow, he had no idea that anyone’s stare could be so menacing.  If looks could kill, the sonic cannon would be the least of Bart’s problems.

He forged ahead.  “I’m sure that my working buddy here didn’t mean anything by it.  It’s been a long day, she was probably just fiddling around with it and you caught her at a bad time!  We’ll have your control panel up and running before shift end, so no need to go worrying yourself on our account.  And what’s one screw between friends, huh?” 

The Beetle’s flat yellow glare held no trace of amusement, but at least the sonic cannon was powering down.  “I’ll be back to check on your progress, _slave._ Do not waste my time again.” 

As the armored figure disappeared in the direction of the scrap yard, Bart let out a sigh.  “Phew.  Don’t wanna do that again.” 

 “Well you did good,” the girl said with a small smile.  “I’ve never met anyone who could talk the Blue Beetle down.”

 “Nah, I probably just annoyed him until he went away.”  Bart rubbed the back of his neck, pleased with the compliment but not really sure how to deal with it. 

 “Well it was still cool.  My name’s Claire, by the way.”

Bart grinned.  “Cool – I’m Bart Allen.  So, what are you in for?”  He gestured to the collar around her neck. 

Claire sighed.  “Nothing too exciting, I’m afraid.  I can’t do much – just some minor teleporting.  Strictly line-of-sight.  Not very powerful.  But hey – I’m a meta, and that’s a one-size-fits-all ticket these days.  What about you?”

 “I’m a speedster,” Bart returned.  “Born one, or at least that’s what my dad says.  Said.” 

The past tense was the worst part, he decided, especially when he forgot and then had to explain himself.  He braced himself for Claire’s pity, but to his surprise she was looking at him with a smile on her face.  She looked sympathetic, but there was also something that almost seemed like… approval?  Definitely curiosity. 

 “A speedster, huh?  That’s pretty cool.  I am sorry about your dad though,” she said, clapping him on the shoulder.  “Was he a speedster too?” 

 “Yeah, he was actually a pretty good one.  His name was Don Allen – you know, the Tornado Twins?”  Secret identities were a thing of the past – the Reach had outed every known superhero when they took control of Earth – but it was still weird, tossing around his dad and aunt’s old titles like that.  The Tornado Twins.  If he’d lived in a different time, would his family have given him a codename too?

Claire’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline.  “So that means you’re related to the Flash?  You’re his… grandson, right?”  She scooted closer to him.  “Do you have all of his powers?  Not just the speed, but the – other stuff?” 

 “You name it, I’ve got it.  Speed, phasing, healing factor, the works.”  It was probably stupid to be showing off, but when did he ever get the chance to talk about his powers or his family? 

Claire looked at him shrewdly.  “You know, Bart, I think you’re just the person we’ve been waiting for.” 

Bart raised an eyebrow.  “We?”

 “Me and my friends.  See,” she leaned closer still, until her breath was tickling his ear, “I’m a plant.  I let myself get captured so I could get intel and parts for my friends – we’ve been cooking up something big for a while now, but we need more metas to help.  I think you might be the ticket.  I cannot _wait_ to tell Grant that I found the Flash’s grandson – this is so crash!”

Bart leaned back and looked up at her eager face.  “Crash?  Don’t know that one, what’s it mean?” 

 “It means,” said Claire with a broad smile, “that whatever plans the Reach had are going down.  If the Mode is what they want – control, obedience, that sort of thing – what _we_ want is to crash the mode.”

Bart looked at her thoughtfully.  “I think I’ve got it?  Might take me a couple more repetitions.”

 “We’ll have plenty of time where we’re going,” Claire said, pocketing the tiny screw.  “That I can promise you.” 

~

For all their security protocols and contingencies, the Reach didn’t really do the best job of guarding their metahuman prisoners.  They probably figured that there wasn’t much point, since the collars suppressed their powers.  Metahumans were defenseless targets with their special abilities gone, and there were plenty of bounty hunters who would be more than willing to recapture a collared meta and bring them right back to the Reach. 

Bart wasn’t going to question the good fortune of a light guard that night, though.  It made sneaking out of the prisoners’ compound really easy – especially with Claire leading her way through the maze of cracks that made up the canyon wall.  Bart followed as quietly as he could, growing more and more impressed with his new friend; he might have had a photographic memory, but this tunnel wasn’t the way he’d been brought in, and he would have ended up hopelessly lost in these passages without a guide. 

He kept one eye open for the Blue Beetle, even once the compound had faded behind them and the last of the Reach guards were long gone.  They were on foot and moving slowly, and it would be laughably easy for the Beetle to overtake them from the air. 

But luck seemed to be on their side – things were definitely going crash, at least for the time being.  Once they were out of the canyon, Claire steered him toward the nearest building – an old general store from the look of it.

 “Why are we stopping?” Bart asked as they ducked inside.  “This is an obvious hideaway, and besides – I don’t see any food here.  If the Reach finds us and I don’t have my speed, we’ll be moded for sure.” 

Claire squeezed his shoulder, and Bart blinked – how long had it been since anyone had touched him in a way that was friendly?  Had it been since dad?  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a hug.  Should he ask Claire for one?  No, that would be weird – she was way older than him and he needed to play it cool.

 _Crap,_ she was talking.  He’d better listen. _Escape now, hugs later._

 “We’re just waiting for my friends here,” Claire was explaining.  “They should be here soon, and then we can see about getting you out of that collar.” 

 “Crash,” Bart said absently, but he was already planning ahead.  “So these friends of yours.  Do they have a camp?  A base of operations, if you will?  And does it have food?” 

 “You and your food.”  Claire smiled indulgently, and Bart suppressed the urge to tap his foot in irritation.  “Did they starve you worse than the rest of us?”

 “No,” and it came out way more snappish than he’d intended, crap – “but if taking this collar off hurts me – and I’m pretty sure it’s gonna – I need to have a lot of food in me.  Being a speedster takes a lot of calories, you know.  If I try to heal without fuel, I’ll pass out.” 

Claire smacked her forehead.  “Of course – hypoglycemia.  I should have thought of that, Bart, I’m sorry.” 

 “Don’t worry about it.  We can find something on the way.” 

The wait was tense; every so often, Bart would see the floodlights of a Reach patrol ship and find himself preparing to draw on speed that wasn’t there.  Any second now, their captors could realize that he and Claire were missing…

The roar of an engine split the night, and Bart jumped.  “What was that?” 

Claire grinned.  “That’s our ride,” she said, pulling the speedster out the door. 

Bart followed her to a pair of motorcycles, which were parked in the shadow of the building.  “Thought the point of this was to be quiet?” 

The nearest driver removed his helmet, revealing a grizzled-but-cheerful face and curly salt-and-pepper hair.  “He’s smart!” he called to Bart with a grin.  “We’ll be quiet from here on out, though, don’t worry.  We had to lose some pursuit.”  He held out a hand to Bart, who hesitated a brief second before shaking it.  “Name’s Virgil Hawkins – you can call me Static if you like, though.  I was friends with your cousin Wally before everything went south.” 

Bart’s jaw dropped.  “Wait, you knew Wally West?  That is so crash!  You’ve gotta tell me everything.” 

 “Plenty of time for that back at base, kid.”  Virgil gave Bart a friendly clap on the back as the speedster climbed onto his motorcycle, and he preened a little bit at the friendly contact.  This was already so much better than being a prisoner, and they hadn’t even left yet!  “Grant, aren’t you gonna say hello to our newest addition?” Virgil called to the other driver. 

Grant removed his helmet; he was a lot younger than Virgil, probably around twenty.  He looked friendly enough, Bart decided, but he didn’t have Virgil’s easy confidence.  “The name’s Grant Emerson,” he said, “but sometimes people call me Damage.” 

Ooh, what kind of a codename was Damage?  Bart opened his mouth to ask questions, but Grant was already slipping his helmet back on and Claire was climbing on behind him.  Maybe he’d save it until base. 

Which reminded him – “Hey, do you guys have any food?  Gonna need it if you plan to take this collar off me.” 

Virgil raised an eyebrow, but Claire waved him down.  “We’ve been over it – if Dr. Hoshi doesn’t have something at the base, I’ll grab a few bites for him.” 

 “Well, that settles that.”  Virgil replaced his helmet, and Bart wrapped his arms around the man’s torso.  “Let’s get back to base – I know Dr. Light will be glad to see you both.” 

~

Dr. Hoshi, as it turned out, was a pretty interesting person – she had an advanced degree in astrophysics, had been studying theoretical applications of time travel when the Reach had taken over the world, and had worked with Virgil to rescue several other metahumans from the Reach, Bart and Claire included.  Plus, she could shoot beams of starlight from her hands.  Definitely crash.   

And she had food, which made everything better.  Stale crackers mainly – not the best, but Bart would be moded without them, so he’d take what he could get.  Claire and Virgil watched as he devoured an entire sleeve of saltines, their eyes slowly widening as the package’s contents gradually vanished. 

 “Where do you put it all, kid?” Virgil said, and Bart just grinned. 

Dr. Hoshi slipped out from behind the piece of machinery she’d been tinkering with, some sort of gray metal box that Bart had never seen before.  “Well, mister Allen?  Do you feel well enough for us to remove the collar?” 

 “I think so.  So what’s the plan, do we just grab a hacksaw, or some handy bolt-cutters, or what?”  Bart didn’t really like the thought of pointy objects near his neck, but hey – once the collar was off he’d have his speed back, and his healing factor too. 

 “No.”  Dr. Hoshi pulled a folding chair over to Bart and motioned for him to sit down.  “Static should be able to remove the collar – he can absorb electricity, so he shouldn’t be unduly affected.  I’m afraid there is no way to completely mitigate any pain you might feel from the procedure.”

 “It’s fine,” Bart said – he hadn’t really expected anything different, after all.  “Once this thing’s off me I should heal up quick.  Let’s just get it over with.” 

Virgil ruffled his hair.  “That’s a crash attitude you’ve got there, Bart.  What?” he said when Dr. Hoshi raised an eyebrow at him.  “Claire says it all the time – it’s catchy!” 

 “Be that as it may, I don’t want to hear Reach abuses trivialized so casually.  They’ve caused too much damage to this world.” 

 “Alright, _mom,”_ Virgil teased.  “You’ve got a point, but it’s just linguistics.  And if it helps the younger generation feel better?  I’m all for it.  So Bart, are you ready?” 

Bart nodded, and Dr. Hoshi pulled a pair of bolt cutters from her lab coat.  _Hooboy._

In the end, it could have been a lot worse.  The bolt cutters made short work of the collar, and Virgil managed to absorb the majority of the shocks with his powers.  Once the collar was gone, Bart dropped to his knees, dizzy with electricity, and picked a few pieces of shrapnel out of the back of his neck.  He was only bleeding a little bit, and the aftershocks of the collar were subsiding. 

He took a deep breath and let it out – and then a warm, crackling tingle spread over him from his head to his toes as the Speed Force rushed back into his awareness.  The back of his neck itched, his healing factor knitting the torn skin back together, and Bart shook his head as his eyes reaccustomed themselves to the sight of a world that could move both too fast and too slow all at once. 

 “Well, kid?  Is it back?”  Virgil eyed him, a small smile on his face. 

Bart clambered to his feet, savoring the feeling of lightning under his skin.  “Oh yeah.” 

~

Bart could tell that Dr. Hoshi was getting impatient with his need for speed – Claire’s pun, not his – but he’d been without his powers for too long, and now that he was able to run again, he wasn’t sure he’d ever really be able to stop.  He was reluctant to admit it to anyone but Claire, but his time in the collar had really taken the edge off his speed.  It was going to take time to get himself into fighting condition again, and that meant lots and lots of training. 

Luckily he was able to help his friends and train at the same time.  The city near the former Mount Justice was a big place, and there were plenty of places to scrounge for supplies.  It was weird at first, using his powers to take care of others – but he had a feeling his dad would have been proud of him, even if he wouldn’t necessarily approved of the sheer quantities of food that Bart was stealing.  Some of that was just fairness, though; there were plenty of street bosses in the rougher downtown areas, many of whom hoarded food away and left the starving people in the streets with nothing.  Redistributing the wealth was easy for a speedster – and getting a little extra for his own team was an added bonus. 

While several other metahumans dropped by their base on occasion, the only permanent residents of the underground building were Dr. Hoshi, Virgil, and Grant.  Bart still saw Claire often, but her powers, while not the most suited for combat, were great for gathering intel.  Bart had been able to vibrate her collar enough to fry the circuitry, and with Virgil extracting the extra electricity before it could do damage, getting the collar off had been a piece of cake.  They’d been able to remove several other metahumans’ collars in the same way, and while they hadn’t stuck around for long, it cheered Bart to know that he’d been able to help them. 

Bart did wish that he could be of more help with Dr. Hoshi’s project, but she was always quick to reassure him that his work was invaluable.  “Who else could find me a shoulder bolt in less than a minute?” she pointed out, and if her smile was a little more fonder than it used to be, Bart was hardly going to complain. 

 “There is one person that we’re going to need if my plan is going to work,” she said to Bart one afternoon after he’d made several successive supply runs.  “Nathaniel Tryon, codename Neutron.  He was a former Mode of the Reach, until they decided his powers were too difficult to control.” 

Bart’s eyebrows rose.  He’d never heard of someone too powerful to be Moded.  “The dude sounds pretty crash.  He got some powers that’ll help you finish up this machine?” 

 “It’s not his powers I’m interested in – it’s his knowledge of the past.”  Dr. Hoshi’s eyes looked briefly sad.  “Bart – Neutron was the metahuman responsible for the death of your grandfather.” 

Bart felt like a cold wind had swept over him.  “What?” he heard himself say.  “But he’s… a killer.  Why would we ever need to work with him?” 

Dr. Hoshi placed a hand on his shoulder.  “Because the Flash’s death marked the beginning of the Reach’s slow rise to power.  If we’re going to prevent your grandfather’s death, we’ll need to know everything that Neutron knows.  I need to know – will you be able to work with him?”

 “I mean – yeah, it won’t be crash, but I can make it work if it’s going to help Gramps.”  Bart took a deep breath, steadying himself.  He was going to meet his grandpa’s killer – but wait.  “Hold on a second, doc.  Are you talking about _time travel?”_

 “That’s the plan, Mr. Allen.  I promise to explain more about my time machine designs later – I’m sure you have many questions.  But we need to act quickly if we’re going to rescue Neutron from the Reach.” 

That got Bart’s attention.  “Wait, rescue him?  I thought you said he’d been de-Moded.” 

 “His powers are too unstable to make him a suitable candidate for control,” Dr. Hoshi explained.  “However, he is still dangerous enough to pose a threat to Reach operations.”

Dr. Hoshi walked over to the wall and activated one of the functioning holo-screens, which opened to a map of Louisiana.  “The Reach has several holding facilities for dangerous, off-Mode metahumans.  Our sources tell us that Neutron is currently being held in Belle Reve, a decommissioned prison once used to house criminals with superhuman powers.  Security at the facility is tight, but Grant and I agree that Virgil and Claire, working in collaboration, should be able to help Neutron escape.  Both of their abilities will prove useful in a heist, and with the element of surprise on their side, I predict that Reach security will be caught off-guard.”

 “Whoa, but where will I be?”

Dr. Hoshi grimaced.  “I would prefer to have you work with the primary strike team, but you’re too vital to this operation to risk.  In addition, as a previous captive of the Reach, you are a known quantity.  I’m afraid the Reach might already be aware that we’re working together.  Finding you once was a stroke of luck, but if you are captured again, I’m not sure we’d be able to locate you.” 

Bart nodded – he wanted to go with his friends, but Dr. Hoshi’s reasoning was sound.  “Alright, so I’m on backup while Claire and Static go in for Neutron?  Sounds like a good plan, but there’s one teeny-weeny problem.  I’ve been training to get my speed back up to baseline, but I’m not so sure about taking on a whole crew of Reach baddies in my civilian gear.  I don’t know if you’ve seen, but when I really get going my clothes tend to catch on fire.” 

Dr. Hoshi raised her eyebrows.  “That’s actually a prudent concern.  I will see if I can design a friction-proof suit for you; my own costume has similar heat-resistant properties built into the fabric.  Adapting the design should prove simple enough.” 

 “Wait, doc, you have a costume?” 

 “Of course,” said Dr. Hoshi with a small smile.  “I am Doctor Light, after all.” 

~

When Bart received the call to go to Dr. Hoshi’s lab, he found himself nearly vibrating in excitement.  _It’s only been two days – could she really have designed me a new suit that quickly?_

He zipped into the lab, scattering papers everywhere.  “Whoops – sorry!”

 “You can clean it up later,” Dr. Hoshi said.  “Right now I have something to show you.” 

She was standing in front of a mannequin, her expression proud.  And on the mannequin was-

Bart grinned.  “No way.  Is that my suit?”

He’d had some input on the design, of course.  Naturally, he’d wanted a good chunk of the suit to be red – he was part of the Flash’s heroic legacy, after all.  And he’d specifically asked for a hard visor instead of a softer, more flexible mask – it would keep the dirt and gravel out of his eyes better than fabric would.  Other than that, he’d left the design up to Dr. Hoshi and Claire – and they had delivered. 

The base color of the suit was a warm off-white, with a thick band of red running from the neckline down to the thighs.  The gloves and boots were also red, but the best part was definitely the visor – it completely covered the mannequin’s eyes, just like he’d asked for, and it was largely yellow in what Bart suspected was a homage to his cousin Wally.  

 “Well?” Dr. Hoshi asked as Bart fingered the fabric of the suit – it was light and stretchy, and it would be easy to move in.  “Do you like it?”

 “Doc, I love it.  This is crash – I mean it.”  He hugged the doctor, who looked both surprised and pleased.  “I can’t wait to show Claire!  I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to make it up to you.” 

 “Please, Bart – it’s a gift.  And it’ll be thanks enough to know that something I made will be protecting you while you rewrite this future.”  Dr. Hoshi’s expression sombered.  “Once you try the suit on, I’d like to show you what I’ve done with the time machine.”

The suit fit like a glove, and while Bart was still able to move easily, it was a lot more form-fitting than he’d been expecting.  _Well, at least it means my speedfield should cover the whole thing,_ he thought while admiring his reflection.  He looked like a proper Flash now – and with a little practice in the new gear, he should be able to run like one too. 

Dr. Hoshi was working on the time machine when Bart stepped into the lower laboratory.  “Good, you’re here,” she called over to him.  “Claire and Virgil should be along shortly; I asked Grant to work on our plan for liberating Neutron, but he knows plenty about these schematics so he won’t miss much.” 

 “Well I’m glad you didn’t start without me,” Virgil said as he dropped off the balcony and into the lab.  Bart felt a strange little thrill go through him when he realized that the hero was also in costume – a long navy and black coat, layered over black pants and a black shirt with a bold yellow lightning bolt on the chest.  The white mask on his face stood out boldly against his dark skin.  “Hey, Bart – that’s some suit!  Have you decided on a codename yet?” 

 “Not yet,” Bart said with a grin.  “I’m kinda waiting for the right name to come along.” 

 “Sounds like a solid plan to me.”  Claire’s costume wasn’t quite as elaborate as Bart’s or Virgil’s, but it suited her all the same – a sleek black jumpsuit, with electric blue and white patterning, and a white mask that concealed her face.  “I’m still trying to come up with something that fits, but there aren’t many clever puns you can make off of teleportation powers.” 

 “Well, now that we’re all here,” Dr. Hoshi interrupted before Bart could think of any teleportation puns, “let’s get down to the reason we’ve come together.  Now, before the Reach invaded Earth, I was considered one of the foremost experts on theoretical twisted dimensions and causal nexuses – essentially, time travel.  When I was studying, this was all very hypothetical, of course.  But the development of zeta tube technology, combined with technological advances in spacecraft pioneered by the Martians and expanded upon by the Reach, led me to believe that actual time travel was an attainable goal.  With zeta-beams providing the necessary stable loop structure, an application of chronotron radiation could hypothetically propel an appropriately-shielded craft backwards in time.” 

Bart blinked.  “So, what you’re saying is that, aside from some problems with radioactivity, you’ve actually managed to build a functioning time machine.” 

Dr. Hoshi grimaced.  “Yes and no.  The key component to enabling the time-travel capacity is the chronotron pulse, and every attempt I have made to install a stable, portable generator on the time machine has failed.  The chronotron pulse can only be administered from a central generator capable of producing chronotron radiation.” 

 “And I’m guessing they don’t have those in the past,” Claire murmured, frowning.  “So the time machine works, but it’s a one-way trip?” 

 “Correct.  The time machine should be capable of transporting a single passenger a specified number of years into the past, but without a chronotron pulse, it would be unable to return to this time.” 

A sober silence fell.  _Trapped in the past?_ The thought made Bart uneasy – sure, the entire world was moded and under Reach control, but at least he understood how things worked.  He had friends here. 

But he had family in the past, and the chance to prevent the Reach from taking over the planet. 

What would a hero have done?

 “I’ll go,” he heard himself say.  “I’ll save my grandpa and put a stop to this.” 

Claire turned to face him, her face stricken.  “Are you sure?  Once you leave, there’s no coming back.  I – I’d never see you again.” 

Bart felt his chest twist at the thought of leaving the older girl who had become almost like a sister to him.  And Virgil, Dr. Hoshi, even Grant – this little group was the closest thing he’d had to a home since his dad had died, and the closest thing to a family he could remember. 

 “I know,” he sighed.  “And to be honest, the thought of leaving you guys is – I don’t like it.  I’ll miss you.  But this is the whole world we’re talking about.  I want to be selfish and stay, but I just feel like… it’s my responsibility.  To go.  To fix this.” 

Virgil pulled Bart, Claire, and Dr. Hoshi into a group hug.  “We know, Bart.  And we’ll do everything we can to help you.” 

~

With Bart’s plans for time travel finalized, it was time for preparations.  For Claire, Virgil, and Grant, this meant devising a plan to break Neutron out of prison during one of the Reach’s routine transfers.  For Bart, this meant researching – learning everything he could about the past before the Reach invasion.  Studying the history, the news, cross-referencing Reach propaganda with illegal data pulled from the underground via Claire’s bootlegged data-mining programs. 

He put particular effort into studying the young heroes who’d been alive when the Reach had come to power, since he’d be doing everything he could to integrate himself into their team.  They were a complicated bunch to track; references to the Justice League’s beta team were sketchy at best, and often seemed to delve into outright speculation. 

Ironically, it was the Reach’s official dossier files that provided the most useful information.  Once he managed to hack into their network, he had everything he needed – codenames, secret identities, powers, even their fates during the apocalypse.  He learned that Dick Grayson, codename Nightwing, was still at large somewhere in this time, and was suspected of leading an underground resistance in Gotham City.  Wally West, his cousin, was dead, of course – but his wife Artemis (and that was her codename too, funnily enough) had survived the invasion and her whereabouts were currently unknown.  Other members of the beta team – Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, Zatanna, the second Robin Tim Drake – had been captured, and in that respect the metas had actually fared better than the regular humans; at least they had the potential to be useful to the Reach alive. 

Bart also managed to find some of the files that the Reach kept on surviving metahumans in modern times.  He was delighted to see that Claire’s file was sparse – date of birth and known powers, but nothing about her associates or history – and that other than her name and identity, Dr. Light didn’t have a file at all.  They had plenty on Virgil, but that was hardly surprising given his past association with the Justice League and Wally.  Grant had a file as well, and for the first time Bart got a look at his most elusive teammate’s impressive list of powers – enhanced strength and durability, superhuman speed, and nuclear energy blasts.  He was even bulletproof.  No wonder they called him Damage. 

He even found his own file, after a little bit of digging.  _Let’s see what our evil overlords have to say about me,_ he thought, leaning closer to the laptop screen with a smile. 

 

 

> _Name: Bartholemew “Bart” Allen II_
> 
> _Alternate ID: None_
> 
> _Date of Birth: November 29, 2042_
> 
> _Status: At Large_
> 
> _Metahuman: Positive_
> 
> _Abilities: Supersonic Speed, Phase Shifting, Accelerated Healing, Accelerated Metabolization of Toxins and Dampeners, Photographic Memory, Descendent of the Flash (Bartholemew “Barry” Allen)_
> 
> _Known Associates: Don Allen (Metahuman, Deceased)_
> 
> _THERE IS A BOUNTY OF 10,000 CREDITS POSTED FOR THE LIVE CAPTURE OF THIS METAHUMAN_

Bart sat back, no longer smiling.  So there was a bounty on his head.  He wasn’t surprised, but ten thousand credits was more than he’d been expecting – you could buy a small de-commissioned Reach craft with that kind of money.  It was lucky he hadn’t talked to many people besides the members of his team, even if he doubted the metas he’d helped in the past were going to rat him out. 

And his dad was dead.  Bart had been sure that the Reach hadn’t taken his father alive, but it was different, somehow, seeing it confirmed in their official files. 

Bart wanted nothing more than to be done for the day, but he had one more person to investigate – the Blue Beetle himself. 

Digging up information on the Beetle was always the hardest, and most dangerous, part of Bart’s intel gathering.  The Reach kept all information about their covert operative strictly under wraps, and they didn’t take kindly to people hacking in search of the information.  Bart had done some probing, but the firewalls around the Reach’s highly classified data were too good – he wasn’t much of a hacker, and he didn’t want to risk frying their only laptop by digging through too many pieces of encrypted software. 

He had learned a couple of useful facts about the Blue Beetle, though.  One, he had a human identity – his name was Jaime Reyes, and he’d grown up in Paolo Alto before becoming the Blue Beetle.  And two, he hadn’t always been a villain – before the Reach invasion, he’d served on the Justice League’s beta team along with Miss Martian, Superboy, Lagoon Boy, the second Robin, and several more of the heroes Bart had been researching. 

There was no way of knowing whether he’d been a plant from the beginning, or if he’d betrayed his team later, after the Reach invasion.  But it gave Bart somewhere to start, once he’d reached the past and saved his grandfather’s life.  The Scarabs were the Reach’s ultimate weapon – a living, sentient covert operative that could mesh with the planet’s host population and infiltrate its ranks in secret.  The Blue Beetle had been instrumental in the Reach’s overthrow of the Justice League as well as their conquest of Earth.  If Bart could take the Beetle out of play… Then they’d be getting somewhere. 

~

The breakout from Belle Reve had gone off without a hitch.  Bart had been ready to go, suited up and quivering with nerves and impatience, but Virgil and Claire knew their work and were out of there with Neutron before the Reach knew what was happening.  Virgil had taken care of the guards with little trouble, and they’d had no trouble gaining access to the prison thanks to all the practice Claire had been putting in with her teleportation.  She’d managed to pick up a pocket-sized spyglass that more than tripled her line-of-sight range, as well as providing her with the inspiration for her new codename – Scope. 

“You did good,” said Bart with a grin as he hugged his friend – and Virgil too, for good measure. 

Neither of them seemed bothered by the group hug; they wrapped him in closer, and Bart wasn’t even bothered by the stifling warmth of Virgil’s jumpsuit.  It was good to have his team back together again. 

“So where’s Neutron?” Bart asked when they pulled back.  “I’m guessing we need to get his collar off.”

“Yeah, probably,” Virgil sighed.  “Dr. Hoshi and Grant have been filling him in on our plan with the time machine.  So far he seems to be on board.  Do you wanna meet him?”

“Might as well.”  There was no sense in avoiding Neutron – not when they were going to have to work together. 

Bart wasn’t sure what he’d expecting his grandfather’s killer to look like, but the eyes that met his were so tired and sad that he felt the worst of his tension melt away.  Neutron was not a tall man – he was about Virgil’s height, and he was completely bald.  His face and neck were patterned with faded scars, and he was thin enough that his cheekbones stood out under his skin.  He was wearing what looked like a standard prison jumpsuit, and his inhibitor collar stood out gunmetal-gray against his pale skin. 

“You must be Bart Allen,” the man said quietly, looking him over.  “In that suit you even look a little like him.  The Flash, I mean.” 

He grimaced, and Bart felt his mouth turn down at the corners.  “Yeah, well.  That’s the idea.  So, anyway… Welcome?  I’m sure you’re not thrilled to be here, I mean sure the Reach doesn’t have you anymore, but this is all kind of a bit… awkward, isn’t it?” 

He was rambling, and he winced internally, but for some reason all the talking seemed to put Neutron at ease.  “Maybe it is, Bart.  But I’m not in prison, and from what your partners have told me, we’re in a position to strike a blow against the Reach.  To me, things are looking up.” 

Bart smiled – he might be a killer, but at least he was optimistic.  “Crash.  Well, Neutron-“

“Please, call me Nathaniel.”

“-let’s get that collar off you.”

Bart reached for Neutron’s inhibitor collar, but to his surprise, the man recoiled.  “No, you can’t!” 

Bart and Neutron stared at each other, a frozen impasse.  “I don’t get it, dude,” Virgil put in, walking over to Bart and clapping a hand down on his shoulder.  “You’re free from the Reach now.  Why would you want to keep your collar?”

“Because I’m too dangerous without it!” Neutron snapped.  “I can’t control my powers – the Reach experimented on me, tried everything to make my abilities controllable so that they could Mode me without destroying their tech.  But there was nothing they could do.  The collar is the only thing that makes me safe enough to be around.”

Virgil grimaced.  “Oh.” 

Bart shuddered, feeling grateful for the relatively few drawbacks that came with his powers.  What was an accelerated metabolism, after all, especially compared to the uncontrollable energy bursts that had done for his grandfather? 

“Alright, so that idea’s moded,” Bart said slowly.  “So I guess we’ll leave it for now?  Unless there’s something else we can do to help you.” 

Neutron frowned thoughtfully.  “From what I could tell, the Reach were looking for a way to disable active metagenes as well as activate them.  I think they were planning to test the tech on me, since they considered me expendable.  If it’s something that your Dr. Hoshi could replicate, it would help me – and it could be a big help for Bart too, when he goes back to save the Flash.” 

“Yeah, about that.”  Bart zipped closer to Neutron, who backpedaled at his sudden approach.  “From what I’ve heard, I’m going to have to fight you.  Well, my grandpa is, or already has, which by extension means me.  You know, when I’m in the past.”

“…well, yes?” Neutron looked uncomfortable.  Bart was relatively fine with that. 

“I need to know what happened.  And I mean everything.  Even if it seems weird or not important, it might help me save the Flash – and keep you out of the Reach’s hands.” 

Neutron sighed, but he smiled – barely, but it was there.  “I agree.  I’ll tell Dr. Hoshi what I know about the Reach’s deactivation research, and then we’ll talk.”

~

The silhouette of Mount Justice in the distance was an ominous backdrop to a conversation with an ex-supervillain.  Bart would have preferred to have this conversation in the base with the rest of the team present, but he and Neutron had history – or at least Neutron had it, with his family.  The least he could do was try to make the guy comfortable while he talked about how he’d murdered his grandpa under the Reach’s influence. 

Bart grimaced.  Yeah, this whole conversation was pretty moded. 

Neutron seemed to share Bart’s discomfort, looking up at the ruins of Mount Justice with a sigh.  “I wish I had been able to see this place back in its prime.  You’re lucky that you’ll get to.” 

“Yeah, well, I feel like luck isn’t going to have much to do with it once I get there,” Bart pointed out.  “I’m going to be meddling with the timestream, and I won’t get any do-overs.  If I mess up, we’re moded – so tell me what you know.”

“Fair enough – I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply…” Neutron rubbed the back of his scarred head and sighed.  “Anyway, the Flash.  I’m pretty sure that the Reach chose me specifically to kill him.  I can generate cascading energy waves from my body.  They built a power suit to contain me and direct the radiation – without the suit, I’d go critical.  That’s what happened.  I don’t remember much from when I was Moded, but I remember the Flash breaking my suit.  It was – excruciating.  I went nuclear, and when I came to, everything was just… gone.”

Bart’s jaw dropped.  “Wait – you blew up the city?  How did you survive?”

“I… rebuilt myself.  From next to nothing.”  Neutron shuddered and looked away.  “I’m not talking about that.”

Well.  Bart could sympathize. 

“It was that blast that killed the Flash.  I think he was trying to get me out of the city before I blew.  But he didn’t make it.  The Reach came for me after that – put an inhibitor collar on me and took me away.  I didn’t realize at first, what they’d made me do.  But it was already too late.” 

Bart could visualize it all too clearly – the swoop of the ships as they closed in on Neutron, laying in the ruins of Central City.  The drone of the engines overhead, steadily growing louder. 

Except his imagination had never been the best, so the roar overhead could only mean one thing. 

 _No._ He turned back toward their base, his heart pounding.  _No, it can’t be, not now, we’re so close-_

It was, of course. 

Bart’s heart caught in his throat at the sight of a domed Reach ship, swooping low over the hiding place that, until now, had been a safe place, a well-kept secret. _Of course – Neutron’s collar.  They must have tracked him here._

He pushed himself into a run, the world blurring around him as he streaked back toward his team – they were still inside, he had to get there, he had to warn them –

He saw the first firebomb hit in slow-motion, and screamed as the world went white. 

When he came to, it was all at once, like a full-body shock.  He was lying on the ground, and the base was.  Gone. 

Over the roar of the blaze, Bart heard a low, pained whimper, as if someone had been wounded and left there.  There was a ringing in his ears.  He reached up, in slow-motion, and wiped a trickle of blood from his forehead.  He had been thrown in the explosion.  His head was bleeding. 

The whimpering was coming from his own mouth.  He bit his tongue, vibrating in hard shudders and dashing his hand across his eyes until they were dry.  He would rather die bitter than let the Reach see him cry.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nathaniel hovering at a safe distance, clearly torn between helping Bart and fleeing for safety. 

Because the ship was circling back – they were still coming for Nathaniel, the only other survivor – shit shit shit, unless they’d captured Claire and Virgil and Dr. Hoshi, or _worse_ – he was still wearing the inhibitor collar, and Bart couldn’t carry him –

“Nathaniel, I’m getting rid of your collar.  And then I’m gonna run.”  Bart’s voice came out a clipped growl, and Nathaniel turned to him with shock written across his face. 

“Bart you can’t, I’ll kill you – ”

“I’ll outrun it.  And that Reach ship will be toast – I’ll find you another collar and fix you – ”

“You’ll need my DNA to program the collar when you get one.”  Nathaniel took a deep, shuddering breath.  “Just make it fast.”

 _Hah._ _Fast, he says._

Bart reaches out for speed and his hand is vibrating, shearing through the collar like it’s made of paper.  Nathaniel screams but he’s already moving again, racing toward where the Reach ship is swooping low over the rubble, near enough for him to jump onto the shell and vibrate his way into the cockpit.  He’s in and out, sweeping through doors and wings and it’s faster to run on the walls and the ceiling than to make those turns so he does, and it’s so easy to rip a collar from a station in the science room when he’s moving this fast. 

In slow motion, he sees a beam of orange light strike the ship head-on and then the floor is tilting, and he’s leaping out of the gaping hole and into space because he only has seconds before Neutron recharges and he has to time this perfectly, he’s only got one person left and he didn’t save Claire or any of the others but he can save this one if he can just run fast enough. 

He can see what’s left of the man stitching itself back together, orange light over white bone, and his feet touch ground and there is nothing in this future that means anything to him now but he is still running, he still has his speed and this is what it means to be a hero, to be a Flash – to run headlong into danger to protect whatever’s left, because failure is worse than the alternative. 

The collar claps shut around Neutron’s throat, and Bart smears the other metahuman’s blood on the input port. 

When he saw Neutron fall, unearthly golden glow extinguished, Bart relinquished his grip on the Speed Force and skidded to a stop, losing his balance and tumbling over and over again until he finally rolled to a stop.  “Nathaniel?” he croaked.  “Is it over?”

“For now, Bart,” Nathaniel gasped, and Bart let the darkness take him. 

~

The destruction of the surface bunker was absolute.  Bart combed the rubble for the better part of a day, and was finally forced to admit defeat when he collapsed in a pile of plaster chunks and had to be nursed through a bout of hypoglycemia by Neutron.  Of his friends there was no sign.  Maybe they’d been lucky, and Claire had managed to teleport them to safety.  Or maybe not. 

Bart tried to console himself with the knowledge that his friends, if they were dead, had died free of the Reach.  Sometimes it was enough. 

The underground portions had fared better, and when Bart saw the pieces of the time machine, knocked about and dented but repairable, he cracked a shaky smile.  So their luck wasn’t done.  They could still salvage this future, scrape some sort of good from the ruin. 

It took Bart and Neutron weeks to relocate the pieces to the ruins of Mount Justice, a place that was still relatively isolated and that would make the perfect arrival destination, forty years in the past.  And then the work began.  They made a strange, silent team, Bart repairing the machine from his own memory and the salvaged fragments of Dr. Hoshi’s blueprints while Neutron stole food for the both of them and worked on developing the predicted cure for his metahuman affliction.  Through the cold, nuclear winter, the machine became his penance.  This time he would not fail. 

Sometimes it was too much, and Bart would go scavenging to replenish the supplies while Neutron tinkered with the simpler repairs.  Super-speed was no help when it came to the machine, not when food was in such short supply and the fuses were so delicate.  It didn’t help that every twist of the wrench reminded him of Dr. Hoshi, who had so unerringly built the first. 

It didn’t do to think about his teammates too much.  Virgil would probably be a captive of the Reach when he returned to the past, tortured to bring out his metagene, and Bart couldn’t rescue him.  Dr. Hoshi would be somewhere in Japan, holding down the fort overseas – he couldn’t risk interfering with her.  He had no idea where to find Grant.  And Claire wouldn’t even be born yet. 

Bart paused in his repairs and stared at the time machine’s paneling until it blurred before his eyes.  Claire.  Even when she was born, he wouldn’t know.  He’d never found out where she'd lived or who her parents were, never thought it important enough to ask.  Unless she was captured by the Reach again in the rewritten future, he’d never be able to find her. 

Bart missed her like a fist around his heart, but he hoped he’d never see her again. 

The sound of boots in ash alerted him to a presence behind him.  “How’s it coming?”  Neutron approached the machine, face questioning.   

Bart gave the bolt one last twist and turned to look at the man’s scarred face – the only remnants of his brush with death and subsequent full-body reassembly.  “Almost finished.” 

Neutron nodded, eyes still hard but mouth a little softer.  “Wish I could go along.” 

Nobody would be following Bart into temporal exile, and even if he could have taken a fellow traveler, he didn’t like to think about bringing Neutron along.  “Sorry.  Only seats one.” 

Neutron shifted.  “You understand that the trip to the past will fry the machine’s circuitry.  This… is a one-way ticket. 

He’d known that from the beginning – Dr. Hoshi had made sure of that.  At first, it had seemed unfortunate, if necessary.  Now Bart was nothing but grateful.   “Does this look like a future worth returning to?”

Maybe once he was done with his mission, Mount Justice would be a sight worth looking at.  But the ashen sky was too quiet, and the moan of the wind sounded like a hollow echo of everything that had already been lost. 

Right now, Bart didn’t feel like a speedster.  He just felt tired and scooped out, a life’s worth of trouble packed into too little time.  Ten years as a refugee and two years as a prisoner, then six months of happiness capped off by six more of – whatever this was.  It was selfish to expect better, when the whole world was moded, but he did, and sometimes he couldn’t help but hate himself for it. 

That was the last bolt tightened – it was time to go.  He slammed the panel shut, his lip curling into something that was half smile and half grimace.  “Well, I’d better get into character.  Neutron.” 

Neutron called out in protest as Bart whisked himself into the costume that Dr. Hoshi had made for him, and for a second, Bart felt a twinge of guilt.  He’d never see this version of Nathaniel again, after all, and they’d been through a lot together. 

Nathaniel’s face was solemn as he handed Bart the cure he’d finally perfected – a tiny blue sphere that was Bart’s best hope for saving his grandpa and averting this whole mess.  “Curing me, and saving Flash’s life – you know, that’s only the beginning.”

Of course it was – the Reach still had to be stopped, and for that he’d have to stop the Blue Beetle.  He was out there, somewhere in the past, and in him was the key to everything.  It had to be.  

“I know, Nathaniel.  Big mission,” Bart said, stepping back toward the machine.  “Lots to do.” 

He pulled his visor over his eyes, tinting the grayscale landscape yellow.  “Better get to it.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> A big thanks to both of my betas, xerospark and temporalloop, for looking over this.
> 
> Static is an older version of Young Justice's Virgil Hawkins, while Dr. Light and Damage were taken more or less directly from their comics. Claire is an original character based loosely on Shawna Baez from CW's The Flash. The fic's title comes from the song "Just One Yesterday" by Fall Out Boy, which I maaay have listened to on loop while editing. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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